This invention relates to disposable identification tags for temporary attachment to pieces of baggage and, more particularly, to a paper product baggage tag having integral self-locking means.
Disposable baggage tags have become virtually indispensable in a world of constantly expanding travel and commerce. Such baggage tags provide essential identification of destination and customer at airports, railroad stations, freight handling terminals, and the like, and countless numbers of them are used daily. Owing to their widespread use and temporary character, the cost of such baggage tags becomes a significant factor in their acceptability. Other important considerations are their ease of attachment and resistance to tearing and inadvertent removal during the coarse handling to which the tagged articles are frequently subjected.
In general, a baggage tag of the type under consideration comprises an elongated, slender, rectangular strip of flexible material made of a paper product or an equivalent synthetic substitute. The tag usually includes a claim check portion to be removed and given to the customer and means for attaching the tag to the article to be identified.
One form of prior art baggage tag comprises a strip made of a relatively heavy card stock paper. The card stock paper strip is provided with an eyelet at one end and a string or elastic loop is connected through the eyelet permitting attachment to the baggage handle with a form of loop or hitch connection.
In other forms of prior art baggage tags, the strip comprises a laminate of paper and polyester film construction or a sheet of spun polyester filaments of the type commonly used in well-known non-tear envelopes. In each of those prior art constructions, the inner face of the strip is usually partially or completely coated with an adhesive or cohesive glue. In order to attach those tags, the strip is passed through the baggage handle and the two ends adhered together, usually after removal of a protective liner, to form a closed loop. The primary drawback of such prior art tags is the relatively high cost resulting from the material of construction, the application of adhesives and/or the assembly of individual parts.
Still another form of prior art identification tag comprises a strip of substantially ordinary paper having a longitudinal slit adjacent one end thereof. The paper strip is attached to the article handle by simply passing one end thereof through the slit to form a rather loosely connected loop. That tag is suitable only for safe applications, such as customer hand-carried luggage or coat check rooms, because it is unable to withstand the rough treatment encountered when the baggage is handled by the carrier or others. A tag of that type which is specifically configured in an effort to avoid certain of the typically encountered problems is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,992.
There thus exists a need for a baggage tag which is simple to attach and capable of withstanding tearing or loss because of rough handling. At the same time, the baggage tag should be less expensive to manufacture than conventional prior art baggage tags.